NEW LONDON – After being told he couldn’t stay in a man’s Norwich apartment any longer, Marwan Chankar set the whole building on fire, according to police.

The July 9, 2011, fire destroyed a two-and-a-half-story house containing five apartments at 143-145 Rockwell St., doing $400,000 in damage, a police report said.

Six occupants were evacuated safely, and 10 residents in all were displaced. Two Norwich firefighters suffered minor injuries fighting the blaze.

After an investigation taking more than two years, Norwich police arrested Chankar, 36, formerly of Norwich, on Oct. 16, and he was arraigned Monday in New London Superior Court on charges of first-degree arson, first-degree burglary and first-degree criminal mischief.

He faces a maximum of 50 years in prison if convicted at a trial.

According to an arrest warrant application from Norwich Officer Robert Smith, Chankar, who was then homeless, was staying with one of the building’s tenants. Earlier on the night of the fire, police said, Chankar had “an argument about crack cocaine” with the tenant and was told to leave.

Police said a can of lighter fluid and bag of charcoal was missing from the back porch of the tenant’s apartment, and the tenant told them that Chankar had used them in the tenant’s barbecue grill.

Chankar also was a friend of the former tenant in the vacant apartment where the fire started, police said. Questioned by police, Chankar said that after getting kicked out, he opened the door of the vacant apartment using a credit card, stayed there a short time, then left.

He did not admit to lighting the fire, police said. He also denied knowing about the lighter fluid.

A woman police did not identify said that Chankar told her that he had set the fire. He said that, angry at getting kicked out, he had gone into the vacant apartment and set some curtains on fire, police said. The woman said Chankar told her: “The fire was going so good it was like daylight out,” police said. She told police while at first he said, “something bad happened, so bad I can not tell you,” eventually he joked and laughed about it, according to police.

Police also found a witness who told them that two days after the fire, he saw Chankar “staring at the house and laughing loudly.”

Chankar is in prison, serving 58 months on an accessory to robbery charge. His next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 13. He said he is hiring attorney Paul Chinigo to represent him.